As part of the seminar “Archiving the Werkstatt der Kulturen: (Post)Migrant Histories in Berlin Arts” held at the Centre for Cultural Techniques (Zentrum für Kulturtechnik, ZfK) at HU Berlin, students of ethnology and art and visual history are examining the Workshop of Cultures’ (Werkstatt der Kulturen) archive. Established by the Berlin Senate in 1993, the Workshop of Cultures was launched as a platform for the cultural activities of migrant communities. Active until 2019, it conceived of and organized numerous events, including the Carnival of Cultures (Karnival der Kulturen). The institution’s extensive archive, currently being maintained by the ZfK in collaboration with the Berlin Migration Council (Migrationsrat), contains valuable information about cultural, urban, and migration history. The seminar aims to develop an initial finding aid for the archive’s holdings and to undertake an initial examination of its documents and media. The Digital Network for Collections is supporting the seminar by providing a tool for recording data and presenting selected documents online.
Photo: Juana Awad
